The Tripods in Daoist Alchemy: Uncovering a Material Source of Immortality

Abstract

The tripod (ding 鼎) and the nine tripods (jiuding 九鼎) are significant in ancient China, appearing often in Daoist alchemy. However, they have been largely ignored by the scholarship on Daoism. Early Daoist alchemy saw the tripod and the nine tripods as critical elements in the production of immortality, but the outer alchemy (waidan 外丹) gave up refining the outer elixir by tripod due to technical reasons. The tripod was merely mentioned in the elaboration of outer alchemy. Later, in the Southern Song dynasty, inner alchemy (neidan 內丹) rebuilt the significance of the tripod and the nine tripods in inner refining, inventing new theories, such as the body-tripod metaphor, the nine orbits, and the lunar phases. This paper outlines the history of the (nine) tripods as a concept and implement in Daoist alchemy.